The Journal of Health, Population and Nutritionicddr,bISSN: 1606-0997EISSN: 2072-1315

Instructions for Authors

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Papers, written in
English, are considered for publication and
should be submitted in electronic format
to: jhpn@icddrb.org. A print copy of the manuscript may be submitted to Managing Editor, Journal of Health,
Population and Nutrition, icddr,b, GPO Box 128,
Dhaka 1000 (Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212),
Bangladesh. While submitting the manuscript, written approval (either in black
and white or by email) of all authors must as well be submitted. Authors may
also suggest names of 3-5 potential experts for reviewing the manuscript.

The manuscript must be accompanied with copies of any
permissions to reproduce published materials, to use illustrations or
report-sensitive personal information of identifiable persons, or to name
persons for their contributions.

EDITORIAL POLICIES

The Journal of Health,
Population and Nutrition has adopted the following editorial policies:

The Journal puts
emphasis on speedy publication. Most articles are published within 4-6 months
of acceptance. There is no absolute rule against articles primarily dealing
with industrialized countries; however, preference is given to the articles
dealing with issues of developing countries.

The manuscripts that are
poorly written are returned without further
examination. However, technical
editing for grammatical flaws and inconsistency in style elements is done on
the accepted papers.

Public-health
professionals sometimes report lessons they have learnt from their experience.
Often these are important lessons and may be reported in working papers and
monographs. While these may be valuable, they may also be biased, and the data may not have sufficient reliability. The Journal prefers articles on studies that are
well-designed and substantiated by adequate and reliable data.

To facilitate rapid
publication of high-quality articles, the Journal has several section editors
who review manuscripts in their areas of expertise. These sections include: Emerging Diseases; Health Systems; Immunization; Nutrition; Population; Reproductive and Neonatal Health; Water and
Sanitation; Gender Health and Human Rights; Social Determinants of Health; Chronic Disease; and
Case Studies.

The section headings may suggest narrowly-focused
articles, but the Journal favours manuscripts that show interactions among different
sections and cross-cutting of issues relating to broad aspects of health.

Type of papers published

The Journal publishes
articles of authors from any part of the globe but has a special interest in
publishing original research of relevance to developing countries. It publishes original research articles,
review articles, commentaries, short reports, case studies, and letters on new
findings (see Mission and Editorial policies above).
Occasionally, the Journal carries an
editorial perspective. The aim is to
explore diverse perspectives and to offer opinions on controversial subjects. The Journal also publishes theme-based issues.

In principle, a review
article should not generally exceed 8,500 words, and an original research
article should also not exceed 6,500 words, including the abstract, tables,
references, and other appendices. A commentary should not exceed 4,000 words. A
short report and a case study should not exceed 2,500 words, including
abstract, tables, and references. Letters should be brief (around 1,500 words)
and to the point; tables can be included, but graphs and illustrations will not
normally be used. References must be kept to a minimum.

Acceptance of paper

All decisions to accept,
revise, or refuse a paper will be made by the editors.

Papers are accepted for
publication provided these are submitted solely to the Journal of Health,
Population and Nutrition and are subject to peer review and editorial revision.

Statements and opinions expressed in review articles, original papers, commentaries, short reports, letters,
case studies, editorials, special issues, and supplements
published in the Journal of Health, Population
and Nutrition are of the author(s) and not necessarily of the editors or the
publisher; the editors and the publisher disclaim any responsibility or
liability for such material. Neither the editors nor the publisher guarantee,
or endorse any products or services advertised in this publication, nor
guarantee any claims made by the manufacturer of such product or service.

PREPARATION OF
MANUSCRIPTS

Manuscripts should be
prepared using double-spacing throughout, including the title page, abstract,
text, acknowledgements, references, tables, and legends for illustrations.
Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page.

Manuscripts must be
accompanied with a covering letter. This must include: (a) information on prior
or duplicate publication or submission of any part of the work elsewhere; (b) a
statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all authors
(written approval must accompany); (c) the name, address, telephone, fax
number, and email address of the first author and also the corresponding author
who is responsible for communicating with other authors about revisions and
final approval of the proofs.

Manuscripts based on clinical trials must
accompany the clinical trial registration information.

Title page

The title page should
carry: (a) the title of the article, which should be concise but informative;
(b) a short running head or footline of no more than 40 characters placed at
the foot of the title page; (c) first name, middle initial, and last name of
each author, with highest academic degree(s), and institutional affiliation;
(d) name of department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be
attributed; (e) disclaimers, if any; (f) sources of support in the form of
grants, equipment, drugs, or all of these; (g) name and address of the first
author and also the corresponding author responsible for correspondence; (h)
name and address of the author to whom requests for reprints should be
addressed or statement that reprints are not available from the author(s).

Authorship

All persons designated
as authors must qualify for authorship. Each author should have participated
sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content of the
article and has consented to be an author.

Authorship credit should
be based only on substantial contributions to: (a) conception and design,
or analysis and interpretation of data; (b) drafting
the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
(c) final approval of the version to be published. Conditions (a), (b), and (c)
must all be met. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or
collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the
research group is also not sufficient for authorship. Any parts of an article critical to its main conclusions must be the responsibility of at least
one author.

The role of each author
in the study/manuscript must be spelled out in a separate sheet of paper.

A paper with corporate
(collective) authorship must specify
the key persons responsible for the article; others contributing to the work
should be recognized separately (see .Acknowledgements.).

Abstract and key words

The abstract of no more
than 350 words should state the background
and purposes of the study or investigation; basic procedures (selection of study subjects; observational and
analytical methods); main findings (give specific data and their statistical
significance, if possible); and the principal conclusions. Emphasize new and
important aspects of the study or observations. Use only approved
abbreviations.

Below the abstract, provide and identify as
such 3 to 10 key words or short phrases that will assist indexers in
cross-indexing the article and may be published with the abstract. Key words or
short phrases should be sufficient to describe the content of the text. Use
terms from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of the Index Medicus,
published by the U.S. National Library of Madicine (NLM), USA; if suitable MeSH
terms are not yet available for recently-introduced terms, present terms may be
used.

Text

The text should be
divided into sections with the following headings: Introduction, Materials and
Methods, Results, and Discussion.

Introduction: The background
and purpose(s) of the study should be clearly
stated. Summarize the rationale for the study or observation. Give strictly
pertinent references only, and do not review the subject extensively. Do not
include data or conclusions from the work being reported.

Materials and methods: Describe your selection of the observational subjects
clearly. Identify the methods,
apparatus (names and addresses of manufacturers in parenthesis), and procedures in sufficient
detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Give references to
established methods, including statistical methods (see below); provide
references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are
not well-known; describe new or substantially-modified methods, give reasons
for using them, and evaluate their limitations.

Ethics: When
reporting experiments on human subjects,
indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the committee on human experimentation of the
institution in which the experiments were done or in accordance with the
Helsinki Declaration. Do not use names of
patients, initials, or hospital numbers,
especially in any illustrative material. Please indicate which Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved the research
and provided ethical clearance. When reporting experiments on animal subjects,
indicate whether the institution.s or the national research council.s
guide for, or any national law on, the care
and use of laboratory animals was followed.

Statistics: Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with
access to the original data to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence interval). Avoid sole reliance on statistical hypothesis testing, such as the use of p value, which fails to convey important quantitative information. References for
study design and statistical methods should be made to standard works (with
pages stated) when possible rather than to papers where designs or methods were originally reported. Specify any general computer programmes used.

Include general
descriptions of methods in the Materials and
Methods section. When data are summarized
in the Results section, specify the statistical methods used for analyzing
them. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument and
to assess its support. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many
entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Avoid non-technical uses
of technical terms in statistics, such as .random. (which implies a randomizing
device), .normal., .significant., .correlations., and .sample.. Define
statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols used.

Before submission, if
appropriate, get the manuscript reviewed by an expert statistician.

Clinical trial
registration: For clinical trials,
the name of the trial registration, registration number, and the URL of the
registry must be included.

Results: Present results of your study in logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations. Do not
repeat in the text all data in the tables or illustrations, or both: emphasize
or summarize only important observations.

Discussion: Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and
conclusions that follow from them. Highlight the important/major findings
first, then highlight the less-important findings. Do not repeat in detail data
or other material given in the Introduction section or the Results section.
Include in the Discussion section the implications of the findings and their
limitations, including implications for future research. Relate the
observations to other relevant studies. Link the conclusions with the goals of
the study but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not completely
supported by your data. Avoid claiming priority and alluding to work that has
not been completed. State new hypotheses when warranted but clearly label them
as such. Recommendations, when appropriate, may be included.

Acknowledgements: One or more statement(s) should specify: (a) contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as general support by a departmental chairman; (b) acknowledgements of technical help; (c) acknowledgements of financial and material support, specifying the nature of support; (d) financial or other
relationships that may pose a conflict of interest.

Persons who have
contributed intellectually to the paper
but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be named and their
function or contribution described. Such persons must have given their permission to be named. Authors are
responsible for obtaining written permission from persons acknowledged by name
because readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions.

Technical help should be
acknowledged in a paragraph separate from those acknowledging other
contributions.

References:Number references consecutively
in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references
in text, tables, and legends by arabic numerals in parentheses. References
cited only in text, tables, or legends to figures should be numbered in
accordance with a sequence established by the first identification in the text
of the particular table or illustration. Use the style of the examples below,
which are based on the formats used by the U.S. National Library of Medicine in
the PubMed/Index Medicus. The titles of journals should be abbreviated
according to the style used in the Index Medicus/ PubMed. Consult the List of
Journals Indexed in the Index Medicus/PubMed. Try to avoid using abstracts as references; .unpublished observations. and .personal communications. must not
be used as references, although references to written, not oral, communications
may be inserted (in parenthesis) in the text. Include among the references
papers accepted but not yet published, designate the journal, mention the year,
and add .in press. (in parenthesis).

The references must be verified by the author(s) against the original
documents. Examples of correct forms of some references are given here.

Examples of correct forms
of references

Journals

(1) Standard journal article (list all authors when
six or less; when seven or more, list only first six and add et al. in italics)

Type each table double spaced on a separate sheet. Do not submit tables as photographs. Number
tables consecutively and use a brief title for each. Mention in each column a
short or abbreviated heading. Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the
heading. Explain in footnotes all non-standard abbreviations that are used in
each table. For footnotes, use these symbols in this sequence: *, ., ., ¶, §,
**, .., .., etc. Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard
deviation (SD) and standard error of the
mean (SEM). Internal vertical rules should not be used. Cite each table
in the text in consecutive order. If you use
data from another published or
unpublished source, obtain permission, acknowledge fully, and submit
permission obtained.

Illustrations
and legends for illustrations

Illustrations

Figures should be professionally drawn.
Letters, numbers, and symbols should be clear and even throughout. Titles and detailed explanations should belong in the legends for illustrations, not
on the illustrations themselves.

Photomicrographs may
have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in
the photomicrographs should contrast with the background.

If photographs of
persons are used, either the subjects must not be identifiable
or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the
photographs.

Figures should be
numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited
in the text. If a figure or a table has been published, acknowledge the
original source, and submit written permission from the copyright holder to
reproduce the materials. Permission is required, regardless of authorship or
ownership by virtue of being the publisher, except for documents in the public
domain. Colour photographs are not encouraged. But, if necessary, colour
photographs can be reproduced if paid by the author.

Legends
for illustrations

Type legends for
illustrations double-spaced, with arabic numerals
corresponding to the illustrations. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters
are used for identifying parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each
one clearly in the legend. Explain the internal scale, and identify method of
staining in photomicrographs.

Units
of measurements

Measurements of length, height, weight, and
volume should be reported in metric units (metre, kilogramme, litre) or their
decimal multiples. Temperature should be
given in degrees Celsius (e.g. 37 ºC). Editors may request that
alternative or non-SI units be added by the authors before publication.

Abbreviations
and symbols

Use only standard abbreviations. Avoid
abbreviations in the title and abstract. The full term for which an
abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a
standard unit of measurement.

For
further information, authors are referred to: .Uniform requirements for
manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. prepared by the International
Committee of Medical Journal Editors. (http://www.icmje.org).

Copyright

Manuscripts submitted for publication in the Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition must
not have been previously submitted or published. Accepted papers become
the permanent property of the Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition of icddr,b. By submitting a manuscript, the authors(s) agree that copyrights for their articles are automatically transferred to icddr,b,
if and when the articles are accepted for publication.

The copyright gives the publisher (icddr,b)
of the Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition the exclusive rights to
reproduce and distribute the article,
including reprints, photographic reproductions,
microforms, or any other reproductions of similar nature, and
translations.

The Article-Fee Code on the first page of an
article in this journal indicates the consent of icddr,b that
copies may be made for personal or internal use, provided the stated fee for
copying is paid through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, Massachusetts 01923, USA. Fax (508) 750-4744). The
copyright owner.s consent does not, however,
extend to copyright for general distribution, for promotion, for
creating new works, or for resale. Specific written permission must be obtained
from icddr,b
for such copying.

The use, in this journal, of registered trade names,
trademarks, etc. without special acknowledgement does not imply that such
names, as defined by the relevant protection laws, be regarded as unprotected,
and, thus, free for general use.

Galley-proof

Uncorrected galley-proofs will be sent to the
corresponding author for return within 48-72 hours. It is the author.s responsibility
to ensure the accuracy of these
proofs. Correction other than printing errors should be kept to a bare
minimum. Rewriting is totally unacceptable.

Reprints

No free reprints will be supplied to the
authors for their articles published in the JHPN. Each author of a particular
article will get one copy of the journal issue containing the article but a
maximum of 5 copies in total. All copies will, however, be sent to the
corresponding author.

Reprints may be ordered at the time when
corrected proofs are returned. The order form with ordering procedures and
price list will be sent to the corresponding author with the galley-proof.
Payment must be made upon receipt of an invoice from the publisher, if a cheque
for correct amount is not sent when returning the galley.